[Etym. unknown; widely current in dialects (chiefly midland), and thence recently adopted in general use. Cf. next vb.]
1. A crotchety rule of action; a peculiar notion as to the right way of doing something; a pet project, esp. of social or political reform, to which exaggerated importance is attributed; in wider sense, a crotchet, hobby, ‘craze.’
1834. Bp. Fraser, in Hughes, Life (1887), 14. Uncle need not fuss himself about the Doctor becoming a Bishop, as it is all a fad.
1867. Trollope, Chron. Barset, II. lxxxii. 363. She may take up some other fad now, and refuse him point blank.
1881. Miss Braddon, Asph., III. viii. 238. The Engadine is the last fad of the moneyed classes.
1884. Illust. Lond. News, 22 Nov., 491/2. Slöijd … the last new ‘fad.’
2. A fussy, over-particular person. Only dial.
1877. in N. W. Linc. Gloss.
1879. Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Word-bk., 138. ‘Everybody toud me as I should never stop ooth sich a noud fad.’
3. Comb. fad-monger, one who deals in fads; fad-mongering ppl. a.; fad-mongery.
1883. The Saturday Review, LVI. 25 Aug., 238/2. Before it became absorbed in amending the Bills sent up from the Commons the Upper House has devoted much time to measures of the kind dear to the fadmonger and the sentimentalist. Ibid. (1885), LIX. 24 Jan., 104/2. He sang the praises of the half-and-half asceticism dear to his fad-mongering friends, and pointed his moral by tales about the service which he helps to govern.
1890. Guardian, 1 Oct., 1527/3. ‘Fadmongery’ or ‘faddism’ is … becoming … a rampant and ridiculous craze.
